


Beginnings/Endings

by hidenodevil



Category: A Discovery of Witches (TV), All Souls Trilogy - Deborah Harkness
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-10-24 04:58:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 16,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17698091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hidenodevil/pseuds/hidenodevil
Summary: A timewalker’s story is always messy, you can never quite tell if something is at its beginning or the end.For generations, the Moira family had one mission and it's coming to an end...or is it?





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story starts during Book of Life, after Diana and Matthew’s timewalk.

In a stark office, a man sat behind a large desk, his neatly cropped red hair was the only speck of colour in this otherwise monochrome room. Baldwin Montclair, a name well known in the financial markets, scowled at the folder on hand with an intensity that would have grown men quaking in their boots.

Looking imposing, bulky and muscular, he was someone you would have no problem believing as some kind of super soldier, surely not a businessman who spend his days analysing spreadsheets and reading financial reports. The chair he was sitting on seemed awkwardly small in compare to his stature, but he settled on it as if he was sitting on a throne.

 

Frustratedly, he reorganised the already immaculately arranged stationary on the desk, as he picked up mug left on his desk not moments ago.

_Something is missing._

Baldwin had had this nagging feeling for centuries - a void, as if he had forgotten something important, something was lurking around his mind just out of his grasps. He could almost see a glimpse of dark haired woman, smell the phantom scents of iris and jasmine, hear the bell like giggles...bits and pieces of memories tickled through time, slowly forming a much larger picture.

For nearly two thousand years, visions of this blurry faced, nameless woman plagued his mind. But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t make sense of it.

 

He had spent his days with countless women, but none of them were able to fill the void. Fighting wars, controlling life and death, had taken his mind off for a while, but somehow these past few hundred years, the blood and carnage did little to placate him. He had found new ways to make and break empires, but soon that too had grown tiresome.

He couldn’t help but wonder if this was because he never mated, all the de Clermonts had found their mates at one point or another. Even that Marcus, barely a teenager in vampire years, had just found his mate, amidst of a battle between the congregation no less —

 

Silently chided himself for losing focus, Baldwin downed the remaining contents, and roughly slammed the mug down, leaving a decent dent on the woodwork. The congregation, the family’s businesses, the knight’s financials - as the head of the family, there were way too many duties in front of him. Baldwin forced the thoughts of the elusive woman away, and refocused back on the ever growing pile of paperwork on his desk.

 _Could use a break,_ he sighed, but who can he share this burden with?

 

* * *

 

It was a cold, foggy morning, Selena glanced out the kitchen window as she waited for the kettle to boil. Outside a shadowy figure slowly emerged from a murk of grey. 

 

“Morning Sis~ miss me?” A loud cherry roar effectively broke through the gloomy silence. 

“You were only gone for two days, besides we’re linked, I hardly have any alone time to miss you.” Selena handed her brother a mug with a light jab. “I assume everything went well and according to plan?”

Linus sat down at the kitchen counter, his mouth forming into a grin that made his sister sighed in exasperation. 

 

“It wasn’t easy, with all the vampires being tight lipped - ok, ok...” Linus raised his hand in surrender. “So a birdie in Madison told me  Diana had been there, made quite a splash, the congregation got involved - nothing they can’t handle, if you ask me - anyway, they’re in London now.”

“Good, they’ll be save there for now—”

“Oh almost forgot - Diana is pregnant! Surely that means the prophecy is fulfilled? You think? Wonder how will the babies turn out - remember when we were small - our familiars --”

Selena rolled her eyes as Linus continued, _this is going to be a long day._


	2. Unexpected Journey

 

 

Life is often filled with twists and turns, one twist could have you bump into an old friend and rekindled your friendship, another unexpected turn and you are locked outside your house with nothing but the pyjamas you’re in.

And if you were a timewalker, things could get even more interesting. You could be sipping tea, having a chat with your favourite brother, then accidentally activated a spell and find yourself stranded in an ancient battlefield, barely hanging on a half burnt tree, wearing nothing but a nightie.

Confusing, believe me, I know. Perhaps I should start from the beginning - how all this started -

 

Ahem - This is  a story of struggle, of hate and of love...

.

.

.

Once upon a time - a little less than a thousand years ago really - spring time. A special witch met a slightly different vampire, they fell in love, a forbidden love affair - rude right? People can be so judgemental - she got pregnant and the deadbeat vampire dad was nowhere to be found.

Then winter came and the witch gave birth to a set of twins, a boy and a girl. The girl - like most cute little babies - cried and drink milk all day; but the boy would only drink blood. Realised what the witch had done, her family shunned her - talk about family values - they took the babies away and refused to feed them. 

The twins were staved and left out for dead in the snowy mountains, a family - a vampire family - took pity on them and took the barely surviving girl in. They named the girl Moira and kept her hidden from other creatures.

 

Moira, half witch half vampire, grew up and became a powerful seer, she peeked into the past and found others like her - entire bloodlines hunted, persecuted, forgotten by history just because they were different. 

Then a prophecy came to her: creatures are dying out - not just because they were killing each other out of hate or plain old power grab - creatures got weaker, less powerful and less in control. 

Though these snippets of past and future, Moira investigated - Nancy Drew style - and found a vessel. A magical container - probably created by some ancient powerful creatures - preserving these forgotten souls and their knowledge and history, waiting for the right time guide creatures back to their former glory. 

 

And so in order to save creatures from extinction, Moira and her children named after her, began a mission that will take generations and almost a millennia to complete - 

 

_Ok_ \- I might have strayed a bit far, but I promise this is totally relevant, you see - our ancestors are a sneaky bunch, just because they are long dead, it doesn’t mean they won’t leave you some surprises to “guide” you into do their biddings - just like this spell my dear sister was about to stumble into...

.

.

.

“That sly fox had been turning his eyes on Diana, it’s time.” 

Selena absently sipped at her tea while the two browsed through stacks of notes and journals written by their ancestors. 

“The last sighting of him was in Prague.”

“But that was decades ago.” He mumbled between bites of his toast. 

“Nothing more recent, I’m afraid a bit of leg work is in order.”

“That’ll be tough without magic - we’re still pretending to be humans?”

“Or vampires if need be,” Selena considered as she opened a journal once belonged to their mother. “Magic might draw too much atten— WHAT IS THAT!!” 

 

Blue and amber threads sprouted out of the journal, snaking towards her, wrapping themselves tightly around her arms and legs. Writings on the page had dissolved into an ink stain, then reconfigured itself into a simple drawing. Colours appeared as the drawing became more and more vivid and lifelike. 

In a blink, the page had turned into a portal to an unknown place and time, drawing Selena right into it...

.

.

.

In another blink, everything quieted down, Linus found himself alone staring at the journal that just swallowed his sister. There was only one entry on the opened page, in his mother’s barely legible scribbles -

_Selena is safe, please proceed as planned._


	3. All Roads Lead to Rome

 

Unless there was a Roman era war re-enactment going on, and the re-enactors were crazy enough to use real corpses, I could say for certain that this was the Roman era, and she was in the aftermath of some battle -

 

Just to be clear - I’m _not_ a stalker - I simply know these stuff thanks to the twin link I had with my sister, we could be each other’s eyes and ears (quite handy when you are cheating on a test - not that we ever cheated, mind). Prefect when you’re worried about your sister, or just plain bored staking out an exit for an abandoned web of tunnels. 

_No - not_ a stalker - I was just doing the job as Selena and I planned, just like mommy dearest ordered. I was to track down this big baddie who had been committing heinous crimes for centuries, he called himself Benjamin Fox, and true to his name - he’s sly _AF_ , no one had laid eyes on him for decades. And here’s where the latest lead had led me - hiding in a tree, watching a rusting door, bored out of my mind. 

_Anyway_ \- back to the story...

.

.

.

A half burnt tree stood alone on a vast field, Selena found herself ranging on it hazardously, a bit of fabric stuck on a twig was all there was holding her twenty feet above ground.

Time spells are always tricky, doesn’t matter if you had cast it or if it was cast on you, and the further you travel in time, the more energy it will take you. Accidental or not, traveling two thousand years back in time would surely knock the wind out of you. 

 

 

She moved her arms cautiously, taking a mental stock of her situation while her eyes regained focus - _no injuries, that’s a good sign_. The clothes she was wearing had somehow transformed into a Roman garb, likely due to a secondary disguising spell cast on the booby trap her mother left. 

At least she won’t have to worry about standing out too much in the past, knowing her mother - who was a meticulous planner - might have even thrown in a translation spell for good measure. 

But the loose draping fabric was getting in her way, not helping much with her with her hand-eye coordination when she’s being all dazed and confused. Carefully with a few tries, she grabbed onto a sturdy looking branch - made sure she was at no risk of falling flat on her face - she surveyed the unfamiliar environment around her.

 

The silence was unnerving, normally she would enjoy some quiet time by herself - but at this moment, with the scent of blood coming at her in waves, this suffocating silence made her shiver as her heart sank. 

Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of bodies  - daemons, humans, a few witches, but mostly vampires - scattered across the field before her eyes. 

This must be the result of one of the vampire wars granny talked about, vampires settling disputes in the most brutal, bloodiest way imaginable. 

 

 

_***Lub* - *Dub*** _

 

 

A heart beat broke through the numbing silence. _A survivor?_ Selena’s eyes followed the sound to a vampire leaning against the tree, his bronze hair - half caked in blood - glinted under the afternoon sun. His armour with a broken strap, barely hanging on him, was covered in dints and dents and in substances she would rather not identify. The vampire - his face...strangely familiar - was wounded, nothing too severe (for a vampire anyway). Just a bunch cuts here and there, all of which should have healed long ago, but instead, this vampire was bleeding a river. 

 

_Magic_ \- had to be it, it’s the only thing that can stop a vampire from healing. 

 

Selena focused her sight on the vampire, black, red threads lurked around the wounds causing them to bleed. Luckily for him, there were barely a knot on those threads - whom ever created the spell must be either in a rush or was not very talented - or else, she might not have enough time to unpick the spell before the vampire was bled dry. She hesitated for half a moment, checking to see if the vampire was indeed passed out cold - after all, an injured vampire could be far more dangerous than a healthy one, with their survival instincts kicked in and all. 

 

 

Carefully, she climbed down the tree - tearing her robe on her way - she quietly approached the vampire, unpicking the murderous hex while weaving her own spell to heal. She was drenched in sweat by the time she was done. The vampire looked much better, his wounds all sealed up and was about to wake. He was still pale as a ghost, of course, but nothing more can be done without blood and she wasn’t about to volunteer. 

 

After taking a breather, she took a closer look at the now recovering vampire. Bronze hair, tan skin, he looked like a Greek god chiselled out of marble by the finest craftsmen - breath taking, as all vampires were. And even when unconscious, he looked fierce and majestic -

 

 

_Can swear that I saw him on one of the paintings around the house..._

 

 

The rapid tappings of hooves drew Selena’s attention back to the battlefield, at a distance a cloud of dust was fast approaching. 

_Reinforcements? Enemies?_

Either way, the chances of a friendly encounter on a ghastly battleground are slim to none.

She looked around but found no place to hide. _Uh - better run!_ Hastily, she dashed towards the opposite direction. 


	4. First Encounters

Selena had barely eaten anything for the day, got thrown into a complicated time spell, then preformed some major healing magic on a vampire. All that had severely depleted her energies, both physically and magically. Her stomach was definitely not shy when letting her know how hungry she was. 

 

Some food - and maybe some blood - would help restore her energies, but this was Ancient Rome, pizza delivery was not going to be a thing for another two thousand years. To make matters worse, all the scary creatures battling and killing each other not long ago, had driven every living thing in the ten mile radius away - not even stray bunny was in sight, let alone larger animals like Bambi -

 

Oh right - in case I haven’t mentioned, my sister and I were like our ancestor Moira, half witch - half vampire. We have magic like witches do, but unlike most witches, we create our own spells. And like vampires, we have sharper senses and are stonger than humans, but unlike vampires, we don’t get to live forever.

Being a hybrid also means not only do we eat food like normal people do, we also have to occasionally drink blood like vampires do. We had learn to hunt animals for blood since we were kids, but then, that’s only useful when there was an animal around. 

 

And if she had known she would get stranded in the wild, she would have spent some time watching those wilderness shows. At least then she would have an inkling as to how to feed yourself when there were no animals available, come to think about it, she didn’t even know how to start a fire to cook an animal to begin with - 

And what about shelter? Time - or whatever that was at play here - was unlikely to let her waltz back to the land of internet and credit cards, not until she had completed whatever task she was meant to do here. Which sucks since she had absolutely zero clue as to what that might be. 

 

Being a time traveler was definitely not as free and as glamorous as those sci-fi shows have you believe. Most days it feels like someone had just thrown you into some reality game show, in a random setting, where there are a bunch of secret plans, unspoken rules, and you don’t even have the authority to know what your goal is. No matter how much experience you had - even if you had done all your research, followed every instructions, woven the prefect spell - things are still going to be a comically absurd mess, loaded life threatening excitements just to keep you on your toes. 

Sorry, strayed a bit far again - back to my sister...

.

.

.

Selena had been wandering for quite some time, hours had passed since she got thrown into this strange land. She had talked into a lightly wooded area, hoping to find some critters hiding in the woods, or at least some fruit or berries she can recognise as safe to eat. 

Honestly - where is that big bad wolf or bear lurking in the forest? Didn’t they feature in bedtime stories parents tell their kids to warn them away from the woods? Where are they when you needed one?

 

Suddenly, the wind shifted - Selena caught a scent, something reminded her of fine leather and burnt wood. 

_A vampire - how long had he been here?_

_How did she not notice?_

_Must have been staying against the wind_ \- She muscles tensed as the revelation dawned on her. 

_She was being hunted._

She took a deep breath - _keep calm, THINK!_

She hardly had an ounce of magic left in her, fighting was out of the question, yet it was unlikely that she could out run a vampire in her weaken state. (Bet she regret not snatching a weapon or two from the fallen soldiers on the battlefield right about now.) 

Perhaps she could pretend to be a vampire and bluff her way out somehow -

 

Her pulse quickened as a figure stepped out from behind a tree. 

The bulky armour-clad vampire was surprisingly agile for someone his size, his boots barely made a sound as he closed the distance between them. His brawny figure was imposing even for a vampire, one meaty hand rested on a broadsword, ready to strike. His copper hair gleamed like flickers of flame under the lowering sun, his burning gaze was as intense as a raging fire. 

 

_His enemies must think he’s a fiery devil._ Selena recognized this vampire - Baldwin Montclair - or he will be known as in time. She had heard of him, the future de Clermont sire, the ruthless financier who, if the rumours are true, was responsible for multiple market crashes. 

 

For centuries, the Moira family and the de Clermonts had a complicated relationship, one we hadn’t fully understand. But from the notes we have read, our family had been helping the de Clermonts from the shadows, up until World War Two where they had ceased contact for some unknown reason.

Our education was funded by a secret trust fund, one that seem to have came out of nowhere, beyond the means of our granny or anyone we knew in the family - alive or dead. Ever since we could remember, an endless supply of world class tutors had taught us everything from art to science, from languages to combat skills - none of which had prepare her for what she was facing now -

 

Icy patches formed on her skin as the vampire assessed her from head to toe, engulfing her in coldness.

Selena had to dig her nails into her palm to stop herself from giving into her instincts and flee - _fleeing won’t do her any good now._

She kept her face as blank as she could and stared squarely back into Baldwin’s eyes as they stood stark still for what seemed like ages, silently gauging each other. 

 

“My father wishes to invite you as guest to our house.”


	5. Confusing Histories

 

 

 

“My father wishes to invite you as guest to our house.” His curt tone, which would likely scare most men half to death, suggested that this was not an _invite_ you can refuse. 

Selena stood silently as she considered her options - Yes, that’s my sister, always cautious, always over thinking. But I guess this was a peculiar situation, not to mention fragile -

 

Even if the two families have been friendly for centuries, they sure weren’t at this time, the Moira family won’t even exist for another thousand years. How the de Clermonts - well they probably called themselves by some other name then - would react is anybody’s guess. And no matter how good her disguising spell was, it could never stand up to scrutiny, there were just too many details that could give her away. 

Being different alone could mean a death sentence during these times. Vampires with blood rage, along with their entire bloodline, had been wiped out by armies of _“normal”_ vampires. Weavers - witches like us who were gifted with powers to create spells - had been hunted to the verge of extinction by _“regular”_ witches. Timewalkers weren’t exactly welcomed by any creatures. And Selena being half witch half vampire timewalker couldn’t be more different. 

 

But right at this moment, she was hungry and tried, both out of magic and options. Even her familiar, Thea, was quietly nesting inside her, utterly content not bother lifting a finger to help her mistress. Taking a leap of faith might be her only move. _At least “guest” means they’ll feed me...I hope?_

 

“Lead the way.”

 

The vampire gestured the way, appraising eyes had turn from judgement to curiosity, his nostrils flared, sniffing her as she walked pass - I know that’s a vampire thing - sniffing people - _but come on_ \- you have to admit it’s creepy, I can practically feel my sister’s hair rising. 

 

“Don’t you have any questions?” 

“Hundreds...guess I should start by asking who you are.” 

“You can call me Lucius.” The vampire’s voice softened, but it still made her felt very much like a prey. 

“Selena.” 

Her eyes narrowed cautiously as she formulate her strategy...

 

 

Selena was uncertain how much Lucius - who would be Baldwin Montclair in the future - had gathered about her. Vampires with their enhanced senses, have an uncanny ability to sniff out information from a person. From “how hungry you are” to “who your crush is”, there really wasn’t much privacy when a vampire is around. Plus they can hear through a lie or half truth just as effective as a witch’s sixth sense, which makes them even worse to be around for us - our entire life was basically one gigantic secret wrapped in more secrets. 

 

She might survive if she were able to pass as a vampire. But as granny used to warn us, the further you travel back in time, the harder it is to blend in. Any vampire who got a decade or so in them, can easily spot a 21st century timewalking witch in the 19th century, let alone one that just travelled two thousand years back. Not only because we act or talk different, we simply smell out of place - of time, and it’s not something we can effectively hide. We were supposed to stay away from vampires during timewalking missions. Vampires including most of the de Clermonts hated witches - no one knew how  or when the feud started - but even the most carefree vampires won’t openly be friends with a witch, and an intolerant one will have no problem tearing a witch limb from limb on sight. 

_Keep to yourself, never trust anyone in the past, even if you’re friends in the present_ \- something granny said every time before Selena went timewalking, a bit harsh if you ask me, how are you going to get anything done without help? I don’t usually get to go with my sister during these missions - Selena was not particularly good with time spells, you see, but she was the only timewalker left in the family. So we found a shortcut using our twin link, I would stay in our time acting as a beacon to guide her back when it’s time. But that also means my poor sister had to face the dangers in the past all on her own - look at that weasel - 

 

 

Selena asked the vampire a few hopefully innocent sounding questions -

“Who’s your father?” 

“Do I even know your father?”

“Why am I invited?” 

Although the vampire next to her might look like a hunky star athlete and young - I don’t mean his looks, he was a fairly new vampire - he was answering her questions with vagueness that was typical of seasoned politicians. All she could tell after a long walk and several rounds of Q and A, was that his father, a de facto leader around this land - whom she may or may not met before - had somehow taken an interest on her. 

 

Night had fallen for hours, their path only lit by the faint moonlight. 

“Are we going to walk all the way there?” She finally asked. 

“Of course not. We ride.”

He pointed towards a dark patch, and there it was, hidden in the shadows of some bushes, a lone horse tied to a tree not ten feet from them. 

“One horse?” She wondered as he climbed on the saddle with practiced ease. 

“Yes, one horse.” He smirked. 

Before she could react, an arm firmly snared her waist and in a blink she was up on the horse. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *A special thanks to asia and Rea*  
> After a bit of research, think “Lucius” might be the only name fits the period, amongst “Lucius Sigéric Benoit Christophe Baldwin de Clermont”. Since languages like French and German didn’t exist back then, and it’s unlikely he’ll pick a Christian name before Christianity became popular.


	6. Hidden Ties

 

 

The vampire had effectively pinned Selena in place with his marble like arms, engulfing her in a strong scent of burning wood, the coolness of him seeped through layers of fabric between them - _there goes any hope of her passing as a vampire_. Her pulse kicked up a notch, muscles tensed whenever her legs or shoulder inevitably brushed against him as the horse galloped through the night. 

 

_That brute_ \- no one had ever gotten that close to my sister without her permission -  her signature indifferent twitch of her lips and frosty stare was known to make people quake while jumping out of her way. But this vampire was not only unmoved, there was even a hint of amusement in his voice as he punctuated the silence between them with random questions and remarks -

 

“There will be a game in a few days.” 

Which she answered with a monotone “Oh.”

Selena sat stiffly on the horse, she was bone tired and yet too strung up to even relax.

 

“Where are you from?”

“West of here I think?”

 

“What food do you like?”

.

.

.

Somewhere along the way she eased up and leaned against the vampire, the sparing heartbeat of him felt oddly comforting as they continued silently towards their destination. 

 

 

Day was about to break by the time they reached a semi-isolated villa. Even under the dim light, Selena could see vibrant colours in every inch of the house. From the frescoes on the wall to the mosaics on the ground, even the marble statue displayed on the corner was cover in layers of paint. It’s hard to imagine that all this - would one day fade into greyish-white, washed-out artefacts seen in museums. 

 

A man dressed in fine clothings dashed out as they dismounted the horse, he took the reins with simple efficiency. 

“Master had been expecting you...both of you.” He said in a nervous tone, gesturing them inside. 

“This is most improper, the guest should rest.” 

The man hesitated, but both of them froze when a roaring voice echoed through the walls. 

“Bring some food in.” The vampire conceded and led Selena further into the house. 

 

The room she was led into looked like a study or an office, in the middle a table scattered with maps, piled with scrolls and other unfamiliar items. Behind it, sat in majestic grace a vampire - _that_ vampire from the battleground - the blood tarnished hair was now clean and was gleaming like gold in the morning sun, his tawny eyes wildened slightly but quickly recovered and was now fixated on one point. 

Selena followed his gaze to a bronze arrow-shaped clasp that was holding the fabrics on her together, _perhaps the design was unusual for this time?_

 

“Sit.” 

 

The low rumble reverberated around the room, almost made her jump before settling onto a nearby chair less than gracefully. 

Philippe de Clermont - Philippos, as he was introduced earlier - the current sire of the de Clermont clan, could likely be the oldest and most formidable creature known in the modern world - that is until his mysterious death roughly sixty years ago. 

 

“You are not of this time.” Philippe said with a certainty that left no room for denial. “What are you doing in the battlefield?”

“I have no idea, I was more or less thrown here.” She was ignoring one key aspect which earned her a sharp stare. 

 

Selena took a moment to account her day - at this point there’s really no point in hiding that fact. Besides in order to make sense of all this, and have any hope of surviving in this utterly foreign time, she would most definitely need help. 

She debated internally if she should tell Philippe about our family and her being a hybrid, or maybe she wait till she and Philippe are in private. Should she continue to stay with these vampires - not like she had anywhere else she can turn to - it’s only a matter of time before they discover the truth - _might as well tell them now?_

 

“To be honest, I don’t know why I did it. It felt right at the time?” She blurted uncertainly. 

He seemed to have accepted the answer, but his ever present gaze was starting to make her sweat. A couple of servants, interrupted them, came in and set down plates of food and some drink. 

 

“You’ll have sanctuary here.” He said, surprising her once more. “Eat up. Lucius will show you to your rooms.”


	7. Family Connections

Timewalking and all that time spent in the wild had apparently did a number on her - Selena spent half the day being vigorously scrubbed, plucked like a feathered goose, then had a mountain of fabric flung, pinned and tied onto her by a small group of relentless women. Even though she knew, from the tidbits told by our history teacher, that being washed and clothed like a child was norm for most well-off Romans - she couldn’t help but feel ruffled by the time they deemed her presentable and finally let her go. 

 

Honestly, I’m surprised Selena let them play dress up on her for so long, she never cared much about her looks and although she’s content with wearing whatever I picked out for her - not that she even bother to go out and buy clothes herself - I never manage to tempt her into a proper makeover. Wish I could ask these women to divulge their secrets, Selena would look awesome with some makeup and a new hairdo - not that she isn’t already pretty to begin with -

 

 

The women left her alone in what looked like a small library, scrolls about various topics ranged from “guide to mythical creatures” to “remedies for common ailments” were neatly stuffed into compartmented shelves. 

 

“Where did you get that.” A voice from behind startled her from nosing around. Selena paused and found Philippe a few feet behind her. 

“I’m not sure, probably from the spell that got me here. Could be my mother’s?” Realising he could only be talking about the odd shaped brooch she had on her since she arrived. She examined the brooch closer. 

It looked old, resembled a shortened arrow, likely made out of bronze. The arrowhead had a few simple engravings on it, its tip was purposefully made blunt and was weirdly dipped in gold. 

 

“It’s been a while, never thought I’d see it again.” He muttered absently. 

_Someone could have picked it up during one of their timewalks, and why did mother put it in the spell?_  She wondered. 

“Tell me about how you got here.” Philippe said with his usual commanding voice. 

“My family -” She froze as she heard a light paddling of footsteps coming from the hallway. 

 

“Quit snooping around and enter.”

Baldwin appeared from the doorway at his father’s command, a worry look fleeted across his eyes. 

“Father.” He nodded, moving closer to her side. 

She marvelled how differently vampire stares can feel, an intense stare can feel like being jabbed with an icicle, a judgemental look felt like being plunged into ice cold water - now Baldwin’s gaze felt like a cool breeze wafted around her. 

 

“Continue?” Philippe asked with a raised bow, as if inquiring - _do you wish to continue another time?_

She thought for a while, it seemed strange - and she would probably regret it later - but she found herself not oppose to the idea of Baldwin learning her secrets. 

 

“My mother had an aptitude for time spells, the spell that got me here was one of hers. She didn’t leave instructions, but it’s likely to do with the prophecy - ” 

Selena steeled herself under the two vampires scrutinising gaze as she tried to explain concisely about the prophecy, how her family worked for generations to prevent it and how her ancestry might relate to it. 

“- My family seems less affected by the prophecy, we believe that’s because of our ancestry. My ancestor - the one who foreseen the future - was a hybrid, born of a vampire and a witch.”

“My brother and I seem to have that in common too.” She added. 

 

Baldwin’s eyes widened when he heard the revelation, there wasn’t even a change in Philippe’s heartbeat - _he had known all along._

“Interesting. Your parents?”

“My grandmother raised us. Mother passed when we were babies, she never talked about our father, but grandmother think they met during her last travel.”

 

“You do have a familiar scent.” Philippe said thoughtfully. “We’ll introduce you as my niece for now. It’s almost dinner.”

With that Philippe strode off abruptly, leaving Baldwin and I looking at each other awkwardly. 

 

 

That night Selena slept in an unfamiliar bed - still tangled in most of her clothes - recounting the day’s events. Philippe was surprisingly hospitable, though she had a nagging feeling that he was hiding something, not just about the arrow brooch - He seemed to know something about her background that she don’t, which sounded ridiculous since they only just met - _Could he know who my father is? Or met my mother?_

 

And Baldwin,she wondered idly, he was different from what she expected. She had heard many stories about the formidable de Clermont sire - how he was a ruthless tyrant with a fiery temper to match. But this Baldwin was rather gentle, lighthearted even - and his random attempts of small talks, how ever weird, made her felt oddly at ease. 

_Now is not the time_ \- she mentally chided herself,  _Focus! Think!_

With her mind filled with thoughts, she eventually fell into a troubled dreamless slumber.

 


	8. Questions

Something nudged Selena awake before day break, she fumbled around and caught her familiar, Thea, which must have came out of her during the night. The familiar had taken the form of a white ferret and was peculiarly exciting this day, she was weaving between Selena’s legs, silently urging her to get out of the room. 

 

We never figured out what Thea really is, she changes forms whenever she desires, from ordinary animals to mystical creatures like dragon and phoenix - which naturally caused a fire - sometimes she even morphs herself into random baubles - golden snake bangle, silver doe hairpin, obsidian owl brooch - 

Perhaps that’s why Selena was so good with creating disguising spells - how can you not when a shapeshifting creature was your teacher? 

 

Funny how humans think familiars are a standard witch thing - like all witches must have a black cat? - well, nope. Witches don’t have familiars, unless they are weavers like us, even then, it’s rarely a cat.

Familiars are like a magical Swiss Army knife, they can be our companion, protect us when need be, assist us with our spells, teach us how to use our magic - and they are more or less an extension of ourselves, which is why no two familiars are the same. 

 

 

Thea perched herself around Selena’s shoulder as she opened the door. The servant girls, who had been taking care of her every need the past few days, were giggling over a fawn tied to a post next to her doors. It had reddish brown fur and white spots, someone had made a bed out of hay for the animal.

The girls hurried her back into the bed chamber and prepared her for the day with extra fuss. 

“It’s from sir Lucius!” 

They whispered conspiratorially with a round of giggles as a way of explanation, which confused her even more, 

_Is it suppose to be a pet? Food?_

 

 

Not having a job or a goal to work on made Selena felt off - _lost_. You see - my sister is what you’d call a workaholic. When she’s not working on her degree or neck deep in whatever tasks granny assigned for us, she studies the family grimoire - We’re weavers, we can’t even use other people’s spells, we do our own thing, why bother learning something you can’t use? - 

 

Normally back in our time, when we are lost during a mission. A quick google search, or a research trip at the library can would at least give us some idea. If that fails, a spell can usually do the trick - someone or something out there would usually throw us a bone - however cryptic it might be. 

But in this era, even some humans had more than a trace of magic in them, let alone witches, who were much more powerful than the modern day ones. Any spell like that - even if cloaked - might draw too much attention, best keep it as a last resort. 

 

Selena had already checked out the library in the house, which contained a surprisingly diverse of scrolls. She scanned through ones that recorded past events and news around the area, trying to find a sign - something - anything of significance - that might explain what she was there for. But she found nothing - it’s not easy to find useful information in a library that wasn’t properly catalog - so she tried following the gossip grape vine instead. 

 

People - creature or not - no matter what time they’re in - _love_ to gossip, especially when you are in a time where there’re no radio, tv or internet available. Not like they have a twin link that can project all this into my mind like a reality show, what else could they do to pass the time? 

She had spent the past few days listening into random chit chats, yet nothing caught her attention, not even her borderline magical - which probably is - intuition picked up anything. 

She was utterly at lost. 

 

 

“You could try asking a priestess in the temple, they say the oracle in the temple of Diana is very good.” One of the girls suggested after learning Selena was looking for a sign - probably assuming she was worrying about marriage. 

“Or there’s a shine in the house, you could pray there.” Said the other girl. 

_Might as well give it a go...I’m out of ideas..._

Figured it would be reckless to go to a temple, where she’d likely bump into a witch or other creatures, she decided to check the in house shrine first. 

 

The decor of room resembled a small temple, a large tile with a woman’s face craved on it was embedded into the wall, 

an altar with various offerings was placed in front of it. Aside, stood a few statues, one of which strangely looked like Selena. She inched forward to examine it closer. 

 

“That was Athena.” A baritone ringed behind her. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this during valentine, which got me thinking - what would Baldwin give to someone he cares about.  
> I’m guessing something practical, something he thinking that person would need or use.   
> What do you think?


	9. Puzzle Pieces

 

Selena and Philippe stood silently in front of the statue. 

“She once walked this earth, they all did.” 

The wistful voice was barely a whisper, with a hint of regret that shook Selena to the core. 

_Are these our ancestors? Were they creatures like us? What happened to them?_

Thousands of questions flashed through her mind as she inspected the statues more closely. Her familiar had nested herself at the feet of the goddess’s statue, cooing. 

 

“We’ll travel in a few days, be prepared.” The commanding baritone she had gotten used to these few days ricocheted around the room, drawing Selena back from her reverie. 

“Of course.”

 

From what she gathered from idle chitchats, the vampire wars were far from over. Philippe had been keeping humans in the dark, during this rare peaceful time in history, by disguising the battles as isolated attacks from nearby salvage tribes. 

Philippe had decided to move out, probably to bring the fight to them, drawing the worst of the fights away from the city. The next few days the entire household was mobilised in preparation of what, to the outside eyes, seemed like a vacation to the family’s countryside house - a journey where they were expecting a strong force of “bandits”. 

 

The threat of an upcoming battle made Selena felt edgy, likely worsen by the tension she felt building within the house. She put on her best poker face instead and dove in to help - her way of calming her nerves - made poultice and other medical supplies. Baldwin - a surprisingly constant presence ever since she arrived - silently handed her extra rations of blood during meal times. 

 

 

It’s true what our history teacher said - most battles during ancient times ended in an one sided slaughter. This one was no different.  

The fighting started just as abruptly as it ended, the aftermath however lingered. Even within the carriage, Selena was smothered by the overwhelming smell of blood, even the breeze in the open air failed to dilute the strong scent. 

Gone was the gentle Baldwin she had gotten familiar with, the Baldwin in the battleground before her looked every bit like the ruthless monster she heard stories about. He was splattered with substances she’d rather not look too closely at, his sword hand however was obscenely clean, the striking contrast only made him look more fearful. 

 

The dead and the injured had been carried away to be tend to, but various items and substances they left behind told the gruesome tale. The enemies had arranged an ambush, one that was foiled by the de Clermonts. The army had instead went behind their back and raided their camp site, burnt down foliage and destroyed supplies were all that was left. 

One of the heaps caught Selena’s eyes - something was shaking under a flattened tent. A few men ripped the tent away, readied to stab whatever it was underneath. They froze when they found nothing but a small girl. 

 

The girl was in chains, pale as a ghost, her eyes with wild determination. Her white knuckled hand tightly held a piece of sharp rock. She was five or six - possibly older -  it’s was hard to tell exactly due to severe malnutrition, there were bite marks upon bite marks over her neck and wrist.

Unlike the de Clermont household, some vampires, especially during the old days,  kept humans for blood like they were a walking sacks of food - This girl must be one of them. 

Instinctively, Selena freed her from her chains and fed the trembling girl some pastries the cook had prepared. 

 

The girl’s eyes, even amidst all the chaos around, were sharp and focused, with a hint of resolve made her felt akin to her. Her eyes reminded Selena of a vampire she met when we were kids, whom granny told us was a family friend. 

She remembered the vampire’s gaze was so hardened and sharp, it felt like she could have stripped a wall bare just by looking at it. But the same eyes softened when she caught Selena snooping from afar. 

 

 

Selena’s attention was gripped when the arrow brooch suddenly grew warm, confused, she took it out - then everything went into slow motion -

 

A vampire prisoner had broken off his chains and launched towards her - 

Baldwin tried to get to her, but was too far away -

The girl next to her slashed the vampire with the tightly gripped rock.

The vampire turned towards the girl -

Selena grabbed the arrow brooch instinctively throwing it at the vampire. 

A golden bolt embedded itself into the vampire’s chest and disappeared -


	10. Connections

Selena’s would be assailant dropped to the ground, unmoving, a gaping hole craved in his chest, blood slowly pooled onto the ground.  

 

She was dazed both by the attack and by the unexpected revelation she got when fired the arrow. She stiffly turned to the girl, who wasn’t badly injured except for a few new bruises, words still unable to form. 

Baldwin yanked her back gently, away from what was left of the prisoner. 

“He’s dead.”

“I know.” She took a deep breath. Her heart was still pounding so loudly, she could barely hear her own voice. 

“Come on, we should be on our way.”

Baldwin stole them an approving glance.  

 

Philippe seemed to have taken an interest in the nameless girl. When they were back on the road, Selena’s carriage had an extra passenger. 

“How about ‘Stasia’? It means reborn.” Selena suggested with a slight sense of guilt, when the girl asked for a name. 

 

 

We aren’t suppose to form personal connections in the past - you see - sooner or later we would have to leave, most of the time we won’t even know when. 

More than often, we will never lay eyes on the people we met during timewalking. After all, most people only live for a handful of decades - to them we simply poof out of their lives, never to be seen again. Even if they somehow managed to survive till the reunion, they would already be old and grey, and likely won’t recognise you. 

All in all, it’s cruel thing to do, and what are you suppose to say when you leave? _“See you in a few hundred years, maybe thousands of years - can’t exactly tell you when - time travel rules and all -_

 

And before you ask about how timewalking works - we don’t really know, none of us do. It’s confusing to say the least - we know almost for certain, that we can’t change the _“big”_ stuffs. Like if you want to prevent a war or save someone from dying, time - or something out there - would surely undo your efforts at its earliest convenience. 

However you could make _“small”_ changes, even send messages through time - like persuade - or influence - an aspiring singer to add a few lines in their new song. Or bury something _“insignificant”_ somewhere for someone in the present to find. But - nobody really knows for sure what’s _“big”_ and what’s _“insignificant”_ \- not at the time anyway - we just do what we can with what we got and hope for the best. 

 

Mother was known to play Cupid during her timewalks - no one really knows how she managed to sort through the seemingly chaotic threads to make such connections. But an invite to an academic gathering here, a cleverly placed artist café advertisement there - can link seemingly parallel paths together, creating something down the line that _might_ change the world for the better. We sometimes keep an eye on their descendants, especially those who might need a bit of help along the way - like there’s this couple - a human and a witch - who generations later gave birth to a daemon, who would one day give birth to a special witch. 

 

 

Anyway - back to the girl -

Who was now way too attached to Selena. 

And as I said, forming personal attachments when timewalking is bad, especially for the ones left in the past. But sadly, it would seem, that ship had long sailed -

 

Selena and the girls sat in the carriage, sparingly talked about some idle nonsense. They tend to Stasia’s (who seemed to love her new name) many injuries, cleaned her and dressed her in a borrowed tunic - which looked like a floor-length dress on her. No one had the heart to ask about the girl’s family or the details of what had happened to her. Perhaps they were hoping the girl would eventually feel comfortable enough to divulge the answers herself. 

 

At the end, it was Baldwin who demanded answers from the girl. Which as everyone feared, was not a pretty story and, depressingly, not an unique one. 

None the less, the girl had no family to speak of and nowhere to go. Perhaps it was because of that, Selena found it hard to distance herself from the girl - especially during her night terrors. She would hum songs from another time, calming both her and the girl. 

 

In a short couple of days, Stasia had adjusted into her new environment. Selena looked with worried eyes, as the girl followed her to wherever she went and became as animated as a child her age should be - during the day anyway. 

Selena tried teaching the girl a few defensive moves - _at least then she could defend herself if need be_ \- even a soldier or two stopped by once to give advice. She cautiously made a few queries around - surely a good family would be willing to take the girl in?


	11. Difficult Relations

After a few weeks on the road and a couple more “scheduled” encounters with small armies of “bandits”, they arrived at some kind of heavily fortified village. Exhausted looks can be seen everywhere. 

For Selena, the weariness was not only because of the traveling or fighting. There hadn’t been an alone moment since she arrived at this time, she was overwhelmed by the emotions oozing out of people around her. 

 

Empath problems - according to my sister, being an empath is like being force fed other people’s emotions and thoughts. She could usually block them out, but strong emotions can easily seep through. Emotions were definitely running high during war times, and being in close proximity to people in such times twenty-four-seven clearly wasn’t going to help. 

Selena’s magic - and her empathetic abilities - had been subdued when she first arrived, when her magic had been so depleted, she could hardly sense anything. But now after weeks of rest, it had returned full force with extra to spare. 

 

 

Selena sneaked out of her room in the middle of the night and found a quiet spot - maybe not the best idea - but she was desperate for some alone time. She stood stark still in the cool evening breeze, gazed into the shadowy night as she emptied her mind and enjoyed the stolen moment of peace. 

 

Cold patches on her skin interrupted her reverie, informing her that a vampire was watching. She turned around and found Baldwin, still in a full meticulous set of armour, standing ten, twenty feet away in the shadows. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked curiously with a hint of concern. 

“It’s crowded in there.” Selena added, “Too many voices.” 

She wondered idly if a vampire would understand, _being constantly bombarded with sensory information can’t be easy either? But then, they do tend to live in groups..._

Baldwin didn’t respond, but remained in his shadowy spot, watching intensely. 

 

“Thank you for the fawn.” Selena broke the awkward silence. 

“I figured you were trying to hunt when we first met.”

His voice was even, but a sudden flush of emotions breached through her defences - feelings so strong it almost choked her - her own pounding heartbeats echoed with it, resonated resoundingly.

_So much for not forming personal relationships..._  She thought wistfully. 

 

She eyed the blue and yellow threads as they formed a tangled web, glowing dimly in the dark,ensnaring them both. Those threads are a sign, as we were told, that time is beckoning or is having a reaction to our actions. 

 

_This isn’t meant to - it can’t be -_

 

 

Of course it’s not meant to be - two thousand years is a long time, who knows how things can change - Even if _this_ Baldwin seems gentle and understanding, Baldwin in our time, by all accounts, can barely tolerate witches - or anyone who’s not a vampire or human for that matter. After all there was a lot of bad blood between the de Clermonts and witches, there’re even rumours that some of them hunt witches for sport. Not to mention that whole segregation thing they had going - 

Besides, if you think long distance relationship is hard - imagine a relationship that had to hit pause for two-freakin’-thousand years - while to one person only a few minutes had passed, and the other had to live through all those years. 

 

Wish I could grab my sister through time and end this charade - surely she’s been there long enough? If this - ugh - dare to hurt my sister in anyway -

 

 

“I should head back.” Selena turned to avoid Baldwin’s gaze. “Good night.”

She didn’t wait for Baldwin’s reply, took a few hesitant steps, then ran as quickly as her legs could carry her - running away from what she knew she shouldn’t - couldn’t - let continue. 

“Selena -” 

A stoic voice cut through the dark night, reverberated behind her. But she kept running, she wouldn’t let herself turn back - knowing she if she did, she would no longer be able to stop herself. 


	12. Time

That night, and the next few nights after that, Selena laid in bed wide awake, her brain a muddled mess, it simply refused to rest. She reminded herself repeatedly that she couldn’t start a relationship here - _this is just a side effect_  - she tried to convince herself - _I must have been here for too long._

 

It’s true, this was the longest timewalking trip she had been on, most of our missions lasted mere days, two weeks tops. And being in a time she doesn’t belong in for too long can’t be good, who knows what side effects she might have already caused? 

 

She went through every minute of time since her arrival, trying to piece together the “bigger picture”. Somewhere among all this chaos must lie the reason she was sent here, “time” responded - sort of - _could it be about Baldwin? But in what way?_   Nothing seemed to make sense -

She had healed Philippe’s wounds - but if it that was it, she wouldn’t be stuck there for a good three months. 

She killed a vampire - but weeks had passed with no further signs. 

And there was Stasia - perhaps she would find her a nice home and one of her descendants would be someone special?

 

**_Clang -_ **

 

A clear sound of metal hitting the tiled floor rang soundly in the small quiet room. 

 

Thea - her familiar, still appeared as a white ferret, was playing with something shiny between her paws. Selena bent down and picked the object up - 

_The arrow brooch._

To be exact - it wasn’t the arrow brooch she had on her before, it’s the same arrow head - same shape, same cravings, still blunt - but _altered_. It was no longer a brooch, only arrowhead was left and instead of just the tip, the whole thing was now in gold. 

And she knew, without a doubt, this arrowhead belonged to Philippe. 

 

“What are you trying to tell me?” Selena asked her familiar confusedly.  

Thea replied with a few playful coos and gave her shoulder a pat. 

 

 

Familiars are a weird bunch, however helpful they can be, communicating with them is - well -  _challenging_. They can understand you, with spoken words or some telepathic link, no problem there. They can talk - with real words - not like how people say their cats can talk back. Thea had at least spoken once - or twice, who knows - in the twenty odd years we’ve known her. 

But for some reason, they _all_ insist to communicate with a series of nudges, peaks, paws, hisses, clucks, coos - _anything_ \- but actual words. Selena once think her familiar’s different forms were some kind of message - of course that went no where. 

Communicating with them is like playing charades - and not the fun kind - imagine someone teaching quantum physics in charades style. Sometimes you get lucky when asking a question, they might decide to answer more “directly” and throw you a book - or something like that - you can still bet the answer is going to be as cryptic as it can be. 

 

I sometimes wonder if that’s because our family was cut off from the witches community. Maybe they’d have some “Communication with Familiar 101” manual somewhere, passed down from the time when weavers like us weren’t hunted. 

Our family had been in hiding ever since our half-witch-half-vampire ancestor was cast out and left for dead. Her magic was taught by her familiar - and we all know how effective that can be - then passed on to us through journals and stories. For generations we disguised ourselves as humans, moved around from country to country. None of us remember where our root really lies, not even the location of that snowy mountain Moira was abandoned. 

Maybe one day when this segregation thing is all over, we can finally settle down and build one of those magical witch house to live in. A house that can pull up a chair and whisk you to where you’re needed - or - rearrange itself to make a new room when guests shows up - how cool is that - 

 

_Sorry_ \- got a bit excited there - back to the story -

 

 

The next morning Selena headed off to find Philippe. She might not understand why she had the arrow with her when she came or what was the arrow’s significance, but one thing she knew for sure - the arrowhead belonged to Philippe and it should be returned to him. 

 

Philippe already had a servant waiting for her in the hallway, who promptly ushered her to a sparsely decorated office. This office was as messy as the one she was in before, scrolls and a few maps were spread on every piece of furniture available, some were even piled haphazardly on the ground. 

 

Philippe watched her thoughtfully without a word, seemly sensed that she had something to say. 

“This arrow - I think it belongs to you.” Selena handed him the arrowhead and remembered the vision she had when firing the arrow. “It came with a message - one day you’ll pass it on to the one who can carry the burden.”

Philippe took the arrowhead sombrely and nodded, “and the debt shall be paid.”

Selena wondered about the story behind the arrow - _perhaps it has something to do with the prophecy?_

In the corner of the room, blue and amber threads whooshed around and disappeared as abruptly as they appeared. They were still rather dim, but had become slightly brighter - _it’s almost time._

 

A gentle cough drew her attention. 

“I’ve decided to send Stasia back to the city, she’ll be cared for.” Philippe’s firm voice left no room for debate. 

“I see. When would she be leaving? I wish to say goodbye.” 

“She already left.”

 

Selena rushed to the village gates, only to see a carriage rocketing away. 

She waved at the carriage, hoping to see the girl one last time. 

“Goodbye, Stasia.” She whispered, knowing no one would hear except the wind. 


	13. Endings and Beginnings

_It’s about time..._

Ever since Stasia left, the blue and yellow threads that lurked around had been a lot brighter - not “Right now!” kind of bright - but it did seem her time in the past was numbered. 

 

Which was great, since there’s a lot work to be done right where I’m at, could use an extra pair of hands. I got word that Diana had given birth to the cutest baby twins in creature history, babies that are like us - half-witch-half-vampire, which also means they have a target on their backs - didn’t help when all of London and half of Europe had probably heard about them by now. 

As predicted, Benjamin Fox had set his eyes on Diana and her daughter. Which is why we need to find him fast and take him and his horde of loonies out. Yet all I’ve been doing this few months was chasing down one dead end after another - how, I do not know. You’d think finding a bunch of blood crazed vampires would be easy. You just follow the trail of dead bodies or missing people - _but no_ , I’ve been running around Europe and still - nada. 

A witch must be helping them cloak, but without my sister, my location spells were simply not good enough. Speaking of my sister -

 

Ever since that night, Selena had been avoiding Baldwin the best she could, and quickly found out how good and tenacious a tracker he was. Every so often she could feel his presence just outside of her non-magical senses, watching, following, lurking in the shadows - When he’s not making random small talks and sending her gifts, that is. 

I’m not entirely sure how my sister felt about that, but someone should really tell him “stalker” is not a good look on anyone. 

.

.

.

Selena had taken an interest in some kind of water mill design she found in the library, and was trying to work out the calculations on a clay tablet. She knew she if could improve its productivity, it could be strong enough maybe even to cut through rocks, just needed to get the maths right - and if that stick pen she was using would just stop breaking - 

 

“What are you doing?” A curious voice rang near her ears. 

Baldwin hoovered from behind her, craning to see what she was writing. 

“They’re calculations for this.” She gestured the design. 

She pointed somewhere on the tablet, which had messy scribbles on it, as well as a fair amount of pits and scratches caused when her pen broke. “Look - if I can increase the efficiency here -”

“The machine will become more powerful.” Baldwin finished her sentence thoughtfully. 

“But this thing keeps breaking.”

“You’re holding the pen wrong - here.” He put a new pen in her hand, held it in his and guided her hand across the clay tablet. 

.

.

.

Thea was still in the shape of a white ferret, which was odd by itself - normally she would have changed at least two dozen different forms by now. And that wasn’t the only weird thing, Thea was ever only close with Selena, to the others - including me - she had a “touch me and I’ll snap your hand off” attitude - but now that little traitor was cozying up with Baldwin -

 

“Where did it came from?” He asked while stroking Thea’s fur. 

The familiar cooed and rubbed her head on Baldwin’s hand. 

“She’s my pet. Somehow came with me, I suppose.” She shrugged. 

Baldwin seemed to aware that Selena wasn’t telling him the whole story, but let slip and didn’t push for answers. 

“She seems to like you.” She said casually. 

“She clearly got good taste.” His raised an eyebrow daring her to disagree. 

.

.

.

Selena was in the library reading a scroll about common remedies, most of the recipes called for ingredients that were so random - like cabbages for relieving stomachache - she wondered if they were really potions from a witch’s grimoire. 

 

A cup of honey sweetened wine appeared on the desk before her - which came in the most perfect time - she was just about to ask for a drink. 

She looked up and saw Baldwin in a rather formal looking attire. 

“Thanks.” 

_He somehow managed to make a piece of draping cloth look neat and rigid on him._

Selena smiled at the thought and try to hide it with the cup, “If I didn’t know better I would think you can read minds.” 

Baldwin barked out a laugh. 

“One could always use a drink.” He gave her a toothy grin as he sat down, sipping his own drink. 

 

 

There was no point in denying her feelings when she could feel threads, strong like chains, linking them together. But none the less, Selena would have to leave - soon. 

 

She didn’t know much about vampire psychology, but from what she heard, people don’t do so well searching or waiting for some elusive, seemingly unattainable things - it’s a good recipe for a tragedy - most humans simply move on anyway. And if what she learnt are true, vampires are single-minded predators, they tend to hunt things down like a bloodhound searching for a scent - won’t stop until they get what they’re seeking. 

A search for two thousand years would surely drive anyone mad. 

 

 

“We can’t - I would have to leave one day.” 

Selena finally addressed the big elephant in the room one evening. 

The threads of time, linked to the distant future, had glowed so brightly, she could no longer ignore. She had said her goodbyes to Philippe early that day, who simply nodded and said he will take care of things. 

 

“Stay. I can take care of you.” It came out barely a whisper. 

“I can’t -” Selena choked, “I don’t belong here.”

“Then I’ll wait. I’ll find you.” 

He held her tight, his eyes filled with determination. “We have long lives and I’m patient.”

“Ok.” She smiled weakly. 

But it was a lie, she didn’t want him to wait for her - definitely not for thousands of years - it’d be too cruel - she couldn’t do that to him - 

 

Could no longer bare to meet his gaze, she kept her eyes closed and rested her head on his chest. But icy patches on her skin had already told her how intensely he was staring, his arms tightened around her.

 

“I’m sorry.” A tear fell as she reached up and kissed him. 

She muttered a hastily weaved spell, blocking the memories of her from deep inside his mind. 

“Thrive and be happy.” Her softly uttered prayer dispersed quietly into the winds generated by the spell. 

 

As Baldwin was dazed by the spell, she forced herself to step away from his embrace.

Selena turned to look at him once last time and stepped into back into the future -

 

_“Till we meet again Baldwin de Clermont...”_


	14. Linus

A time spell left by mother dearest had sent my sister back into Ancient Rome rather unexpectedly - and not the best of times - the mission “Stop Creature Apocalypse” our family had spent generations on, had finally shown some good progress. Diana Bishop - a very special witch whom we observed and protected for decades - had found her mate and given birth to a set of twins as the prophecy foretold. 

But of course there’d always be hiccups in life. This particular hiccup - Benjamin Fox - had set his eyes on Diana and her new born daughter, threatened to kidnap them and harm them in unspeakable ways. So naturally we had to stop that blood crazed lunatic and his gang of children - and his allies - etcetera -

 

Because of that I’ve been running all over Europe - Benjamin is here somewhere, all signs point to that - and yet three and a half months of searching, not only was Benjamin nowhere to be seen, I hardly even caught a glimpse of any one of his cohorts. With Selena stuck in first century AD and granny mysteriously lost contact - 

Oh, not to worry - I’m sure she’s fine - um - at least ninety percent sure - Granny does that sometimes, when she needs to get some work done alone. Grandmother had been compartmentalising our missions ever since some terrible accident in WW2, that caused her sister’s life. She said it’s safer if we don’t know everything, not that I have any reason to argue with that. 

 

 

In a cheap, not so well lit motel - in case you’re wondering I have followed a lead to Belgium - I placed the map, that I just got from a souvenir shop round the corner, on the hard lumpy bed. 

_Third time - or the umpteenth time - is the charm, I hope._  

I let out a silent prayer and placed some lit brown candles on the four corners of the map. 

“Show me the location of Benjamin the Fox.” I muttered, sprinkling salt onto the map. 

For a moment the salt seemed to converge, dancing and vibrating, onto a single spot. But the spell broke the last minute, salt shuffled itself into random little piles across the map and with one burst of energy, the candles were blown out and salt was scattered everywhere round the shoebox sized motel room. 

I frustratedly eyed the carnage done.

_A witch must be cloaking him._

 

 

Without granny or my sister, my spells was just not strong enough to break through the cloaking to find anything significant. I got no choice but the follow the current leads one by one, which meant more time on the road and endless waiting. 

Happily using the link to my twin sister, I practically had a real-life-Ancient-Roman-reality-show projected right into my brain. It surely made the waiting game more fun - plus I got to keep an eye on my dear sister -

Seemed like things weren’t going so well for my sister either - she had spent the months rummaging in the past. She done a lot of things back in time - none of which made any sense. But none the less, it looked like she had fulfilled enough criteria to earn a  passing grade and a ticket back to the 21st century. 

 

 

That said, I should really focus back on my own mission -

I followed the latest lead to a small town near the border of Germany. The town by all accounts was quite normal, peaceful atmosphere, quaint cottages with lots of greenery, the people seemed neighbourly and nice. It looked like a good place to live out your retirement days perhaps - definitely not a town plagued by blood crazed vampires. 

Equipped with one of those worn-out-secondhand gigantic backpacks, I was fairly confident with my gap-year-travel-the-world-backpacking-student disguise. I sat at the local bakery, which doubled as a café, chatting up with the locals. Half the people in town seemed to be having their tea break there - made sense, the coffee was superb - after a few rounds of idle gossip, the conversation made a promising turn. 

 

Apparently there had been a few cases of vandalism, a few broken fences that lead to a few missing livestock. A farmer went searching for them, but went missing too, only to be found in a ditch few days later. 

“Bet he went wandering in the night, drunk.” The lady who owned the B&B I was staying at piped in with a sigh. “He does that.”

“Be careful at night, young man. There’re wolves around here.” An elderly shopkeeper warned. 

The baker nodded in agreement, “That’s right, stay where the light’s at. They lurk in the dark.”

 

You bet I was going to sneak out there in the middle of the night - how else was I to investigate those mysterious disappearances - not that Benjamin’s goons had taken livestock before, but I was running out of leads. 

In the dead of night I sneaked out to where the broken fences was. I nosed around a bit, anticlimactically, the place was what you’d expect from a farm, wooden fences - still broken, a pasture - minus livestock, and not far away, an old storage barn that belonged to the deceased farmer. 

Found nothing remarkable, I made a beeline to the barn. 

 

A burst of blue and yellow threads flashed before my eyes. 

_Selena - She’s back!_

 

As I was distracted, a shadowy figure zoomed past me, icy spikes dug into my skin. 

_A vampire -_

I dodged as the vampire attempted to grab me. 

With the momentum, I gave the vampire a swift kick and ran for my life. 


	15. 21st Century

_Pain._  

As soon as Selena arrived back in the 21st century, a searing pain on her side forced her to bend over.

_Linus!!_

 

Visions flooded into her mind -

A homely room in a quiet town. 

A barn in a dark empty field.

A shadowy figure approaching. 

A hidden metal door on the ground. 

A vampire with blackened eyes.

_Blood…_

Accompanied each fast moving image was intense pain rippling throughout her body.

Angry red marks resembling different types of wound appeared on her skin as the pain spread.

Bile rose up her throat, her scalp prickled as the realisation set in. 

_Linus is under attack._

 

 

_5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - ok - that’s enough panicking -_

She took a deep breath. 

_Think -_

She steeled herself, controlled her breathing forcing her pulse to slow down. 

_Linus would have left a message, granny could have stop by -_

 

She dragged her feet across their modest house, hastily searched the usual spots for some kind of note. 

A post card was pinned on the refrigerator door, the picture on it was some generic scenic photo of a landmark in Berlin, nothing special about it. The real message however was coded in the purposefully misspelled address and a seemingly random rhyme. 

_A last known location, that narrows things down._

Selena thought as she read a note likely left by her grandmother. 

This one was a bit more cryptic, it was a calling card. On one side the thick card stock, written in neat but unfamiliar handwriting, a set of coordinates. And the other side, the letters “ _A.S.A.P._ ” in her grandmother’s characteristic scribble. 

 

Selena took in another deep breath. _Leap of faith it is then._

She snatched the magical threads around her and quickly casted a transportation spell.

.

.

.

Transporting to a place you never been to is risky, you could end up in a series of undesirable places, like within a wall or a cesspool - or missed the floor by five feet and fell almost face flat.

When she regained balance and opened her eyes, Selena found herself in a boldly decorated mansion, expensive looking artworks filled the walls unsystematically - at least not in a way she could recognise. 

 

The swift movements in the air announced that she was not alone.

In a blink, a female vampire was in the room standing next to her.

Another vampire, male, emerged behind her but remained in the doorway, half cloaked in the shadows.

She could sense a few more vampires somewhere nearby, hidden, standing guard. 

 

“Are you hurt?” The female vampire asked, worried look etched deep in her face. 

It was _her_ \- the vampire with steely eyes, who her grandmother introduced as a family friend years ago - Stasia. 

“No - not me -” Selena looked at her with pleading eyes. _Granny sent me here, maybe she can help?_

“What are these marks on you? And you’re shaking!”

“It’s my brother, my twin, he’s being attacked as we speak.” Selena’s words tumbled out as she was bent over by the pain. 

“Where?” A voice laden with suppressed anger boomed in the room. 

_Baldwin -_

The sight of Baldwin stunned her, but she recovered and muttered Linus’s last known location. 

“We should arrive there within the hour.” Baldwin’s glare on Selena was intense enough to melt steel. “And you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

Stasia hurried her along into another room, “Let’s get you changed.”

It was only then Selena realised she was still in a Roman garb. 

 

 

The two vampires whisked Selena to the roof, where a helicopter and its pilot were already waiting, they stuffed her inside with a no-muss-no-fuss efficiency. 

Baldwin shoved a set of headphones onto her head, and as soon as they wheezed into life, she heard Baldwin’s authoritative voice. 

“This link with your brother, can you sever it?” He gestured the marks on Selena’s skin.

“I can’t. A twin link can only be broken when one of them is dead, and I’d very much rather my brother be alive.” 

Selena flinched as another wave of pain hit her. 

“Are you sure this won’t hinder you?”  

“I can handle it.” Her eyes gleamed with determination. 

Baldwin quizzed her throughout their ride, by the time they landed, a plan was formed. 

 

The helicopter was quieter than expected. Nonetheless, in order not to wake the town’s residents and alert Linus’s attackers with the commotion, they landed on an empty field some distance away from the rural town. It was still pitch black, but they could see the outline of a building across the field. 

“That’s the barn I saw in my vision.” Selena whispered. 

“Stay close to Stasia.” Baldwin gave Selena a hard stare and she nodded non-committingly. 

Stasia grabbed her closer, “Watch your step.”

With that, the three of them purposefully moved towards the barn with soft, quick steps. 

 

“They were here.” 

Baldwin was in front of them, examining a seemingly mundane patch of soil. 

“That way.” He pointed towards a lightly wooded area. 

As they stalked forward, Selena wondered how Baldwin managed to figure where Linus was. Linus had a strong affinity with earth, he could mask his scent amongst the greenery, rendering him almost invisible to vampire senses. But then, even with her disguising spells, he had no problem tracking her down in the past. 

 

“We’ve got company.” Stasia hissed. 

Selena tensed as she sensed another vampire nearby. 

They stood under the wind, watched as a shadowed figure buzzed in and out of the woods, kicked in random trees creating thunder like booms. 

Suddenly, the vampire turned and lunged back into the foliage. 

The group hastily followed. 

 


	16. Reunion

 

 

They made it just in time to see the deranged vampire pounced on an already bloodied Linus. 

In a spilt second, Baldwin had Linus’s attacker by the neck with a chokehold. 

Stasia moved before Linus, shielding him from the action. 

The vampire let out a howl, wrestled and flipped Baldwin onto the ground. 

Wind grew stronger, the leaves rustled wildly as Selena let loose her magic. 

Vines sprouted from the earth, slithered like snakes towards their target. 

Baldwin grunted as he jostled the attacker off him. 

A couple vines furiously thrashed the vampire. Distracted him long enough for the rest of the vines to bind him effectively. 

 

In a blink, the woods returned to its usual tranquil, bar the warped up vampire writhing against his vegetal bonds.

Baldwin moved in to deliver the coup de grâce. 

“He might have information about Benjamin.” Linus piped in weakly. 

The name gave the two vampires a pause. 

“Where should we question him?” 

“Just do it here.” Baldwin had already examined the surrounding areas. “Make it quick.”

Selena dragged the immobilised vampire towards Linus, “Care to do the honours?”

“You bet.”

Linus struck, taking the vampire’s life force as well as the information his blood contained. 

 

“Chelm...tunnels... Oh - I like that café too -” Linus tried to relay the information as quickly as his brain was able to process them. “Black eyes...more black eyes...”

Selena impatiently stuffed some pen and paper towards her brother, “Write.”

Baldwin hauled the not-so-lively vampire onto his shoulders and gestured the group to head back to the helicopter. 

Linus grabbed the sheets of paper, started scribbling on them as the others hurried him to follow. 

“Ugh - this one got a lot of souls on him.” Linus wiped the blood off his mouth, his wounds were beginning to heal. 

Selena shuddered, trying to shake the images out of her head, “Tell me about it...”

 

Having a psychic link with your twin could be effective at times, especially when you had to record information from fleeting visions. Downside, the horrendous images get shared too. 

By the time they were back at the mansion, Selena and Linus had written pages of notes on Benjamin’s operation. The blood of the vampire provided more information than they expected, a layout of Benjamin’s hiding place - an abandoned building in Chelm, their method of transport - which was a series of web like tunnels under the city, and a general idea of how they were organised - things like “lunch” schedule. Not to mention the list of who they were allied with, had quite a few recognisable names. 

 

Vampires usually had a sense of unhurried grace in them. They tend to focus on one thing at a time, instead of multitasking or rush things along. But now, they were standing in the porch, chatting as if they were having a hallway meeting between meetings.

“So that’s how they go unnoticed for so long - burrowed into tunnels like moles.”

After reading the notes, Baldwin smirked as he typed on his phone. 

“There’s a tunnel hatch in that barn. Guess they don’t do their business where they do their business.” Linus wiggled a brow, visably pleased at his own pun. 

Selena rolled her eyes heavenward, “Rest, you look throughly beaten.”

“Use any room up stairs, clothes and food should arrive shortly.” Stasia pointed Linus towards the stairs. 

“Sweet -”

 

Selena watched as her brother disappeared round the corner. She didn’t look much better than Linus, the red marks on her were fast fading, but the exertions had left her shaking in fatigue. 

_This won’t get easier by waiting...might as well..._

“I guess I owed you some answers...”

Baldwin ushered Selena and Stasia into an office. A large antique-looking desk dominated the room, walls lined with a series of dark wooden panelling, giving the office a cold, rigid yet strangely baroque vibe.  A greyed hair vampire came in and handed them cups of wine, as they settled into hard ornate chairs. 

 

Selena nervously fidgeted in her seat, “Um, where should I start...”

“How about from what have you done with my mind.” A suppressed growl came out of Baldwin’s gritted teeth. 

“It was like - uh - a mental block? You weren’t suppose to remember me - you were about to wait - I don’t know why it didn’t work...” Words tumbled out as she twiddled her hands restlessly. “I’m sorry.”

“She really was there, Baldwin. The memories are real.” Stasia reached out a hand to hold Selena’s in hers.

“I figured it’ll be easier...” Selena sheepishly added. 

“Easier for whom? I have images in my head for two thousand years.” Clips of wood splintered when he slammed his cup down, “I’m sick of all these secrets. First Diana, now you!”

Stasia was unmoved by the outburst, whereas Selena gave him a confused look thick with worry. 

“Images?”

“The memories only returned in full when Stasia came to me this morning.” He let out an aspirated sigh. “I had a bunch of faceless fragmented images for years.”  

Selena lowed her head, fidgeting, doubting if she did the right thing by blocking Baldwin’s memory. _How did the spell gone so wrong? Did I really messed up his mind -_

Suddenly a revelation widened her eyes. 

 

“You _are_ Stasia.”

“Yes. I’ve been searching for you and your family for -” Her eyes glistened with a red sheen, “But you’re finally here.”

“Timewalking witches.” Baldwin muttered under his breath, pressed his fingers firmly on his temple. “What did Philippe even want this time.”

“To keep Selena save, so she can do her work, of course. It’s been my job ever since I found baby Moria in that mountain.”

Selena’s sight blurred as her eyes filled, unable to speak. 

“I had to stay away. My presence might draw too much attention, your family already had a hard enough time hiding.” Stasia smiled wistfully. 

The air of melancholy was interrupted by the buzzing of a phone. 

“We’re not done talking.” Baldwin looked pointedly at Selena, he stalked out of the room, punching into his phone. 


	17. Another Day

 

Selena woke up in a canopy of fabric, Linus was sitting on the bed next to her. It was already late in the morning, a rare thing for her to sleep so soundly through the night, especially in a strange bed. She let out a content sigh, relishing the peaceful rest she had. 

“Morning, sis!” He grinned at her brightly. 

Selena buried her head back into the pillows with a moan. 

“You sound awfully chipper.”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Linus wrestled the pillow out of Selena’s hands. “You know Beatrix - the ghost from Italy? She heard it from Lady Agnes in London - anyway - Diana just had twins! A boy and a girl! They’re like us!!”

“So I noticed.” She untangled herself from the blanket with a sigh. 

“Probably half the creatures in the world does too.”

“Can’t be that bad? She’s got an army of creatures with her. They’re safe for now.” Linus, forever the optimist, waved his sister’s concerns away. 

Selena on the other hand, didn’t share that optimism, she had heard whispers from the spirits her whole life. Spirits that were bound in a magical vessel, which their family had looked after for generations, they told tales about how wars started, how they were killed for being different, how they yearned for justice and to be remembered. 

“Not with the convent still in place. They’ll have an excuse to go after them. That’s how war starts.” Her worried eyes focused on something beyond the window, as if she was trying to see pass the unknown. 

 

“By the way what is this place? Since when are we friends with vampires?” Linus said teasingly, attempting to distract his sister from her gloomy thoughts. 

“I followed granny note. You know how cryptic she can be.” Selena shrugged. 

“Speaking of - what’s granny up to? Haven’t heard from her since summer.”

She pushed Linus aside to grab the toiletry kit to start her morning routine, an emptiness gave her a pause. 

“Where’s Thea?” 

Her familiar had escaped during her sleep. 

“Downstairs - that little traitor.” Linus replied with a small pout. 

Selena listened and sniffed the air, no sounds of china shattering, nothing was burning, the air smelled dry - so no floods either, the household was as quiet as one could expect with half a dozen people in it. 

_Good sign...at least Thea’s not raining havoc - yet._

She threw on the first set of clothes she saw, and hurried off to find Thea before her familiar decides to change into a more dramatic form. 

“Hey sis, I still got something to discuss -”

 

Selena followed the threads linking Thea and her to yesterday’s office. The door was left ajar, but blew wide open when she tried to knock on it. 

“I’m sorry - the door - I -”

“Enter.” The voice didn’t sound angry, if anything, it had a hint of playfulness behind it. 

The morning glow had failed to soften the edges of the stark room. A burly shadowed figure sat behind the time-darkened desk, a couple of laptops was set at a convenient angle, papers spread out neatly over the desk. 

The setup conveyed an air of efficiency, but the man behind the desk wasn’t doing any work, his attention was on a white ferret. 

_Where is this ferret obsession of Thea’s coming from?_

She wondered as she took the scene in. 

Thea had nested herself in Baldwin’s lap, cooing in content as he ruffled the fur on her back, a resemblance of a smile was playing at the corner of his lips. 

“Yours, I believe?” He asked rhetorically with a brow raised. 

“Yes. Is she bothering you?” 

She silently beckoned the familiar, but Thea was completely ignoring her. Selena watched worryingly, while her familiar happily lapped up morsels - tiny pieces of venison by the smell of it - off a dessert plate. 

_Thea is acting weird...hopefully she’s not planning something mischievous..._

“Lunch will be served soon, join me?” Baldwin waved off her concern. 

“Of course.”

Selena twiddled her hands awkwardly - what was the protocol for such situation? 

_Do I leave Thea here? Lure her away? Or do we both stay?_

“The twins, they will grow up like you?”

Baldwin asked offhandedly, but it was clear to Selena’s ears that he was concerned about Diana’s new born twins. 

“More or less, I’d wager.” Selena slid down onto one of the empty chairs. “But if you want guarantees, I can’t give any. They’re the only other pair that we know of, not enough data set and all.”

“You’re starting to sound like my brother and his merry band of scientists.” Baldwin chuckled. 

“Majored in mathematics after all.”


	18. Thea

“Thea’s acting strange.” 

Selena commented as the siblings unpacked their belongings, which had grown significantly, considering Selena arrived at Stasia’s house in Berlin with nothing but the clothes on her back. They had donned on their disguises and moved to a different house in New York, along with Baldwin, Stasia and an entourage of vampires. 

It was easier to hide in a city this size, Baldwin had explained, people associated with the de Clermonts were at risk of being targeted or spied upon - even humans. And after receiving multiple threats from Benjamin Fox, everyone - creatures and humans - involved with Diana and Matthew was on high alert. It was clear that someone was feeding Benjamin information, but investigations had turned up nothing so far. For that, Baldwin had instructed them to wear their magical disguises at all times, even inside the house. 

The siblings were both convinced that at least one witch was on Benjamin’s side helping him, so Selena constructed a layer of disguise for their minds as well, in case someone was listening in. And Linus had went all in, spamming the disguise with tidbits and comments he grabbed from hit TV shows to the latest YA books fan sites. 

 

“That’s the understatement of the year.” Linus said sarcastically as he took out a folded cardigan and tried soothing out the wrinkles. 

“You’ve got to roll these up, it’ll get all wrinkled if not - What’s with Thea anyway? Did you drop her on the head while timewalking? Not only was she stuck in ferret form, she was chasing around that vampire like a puppy dog!”

“Good thing Baldwin doesn’t seem to mind Thea.” She muttered nonchalantly, shoving a few T-shirts into a drawer under Linus’s disapproving gaze. 

The familiar had ran off again, and if Baldwin wasn’t at some meeting in his Wall Street office, Selena would have bet Thea was in his home office, wheedling pats and treats out of him. But now, Thea was probably exploring the house, familiarising herself to the nooks and crannies best suited for naps. 

 

“Mind? Those two are thick as thieves these days. That personal shopper got some good taste - look at this jacket!” Linus waved the leather jacket in front of Selena, demanding her attention. “What’s with the two of you anyway?” 

“Whatever do you mean?” 

She understood her brother was asking about her and Baldwin, but that was right up the top of the never ending list of questions Selena didn’t have answers for. 

“Uh-uh. Don’t play dumb. I know what happened back then, I can see what’s going on now - I got eyes - plus, even the blind can tell there’s something between you two.” Linus wiggled his finger. “So? Spill!”

“I don’t know...this whole thing - the prophecy, the congregation - it’s too complicated.” Selena had twisted the garment she was holding, and was flattening it out in a vain attempt. 

“What’s complicated? You either like him or you don’t. It’s a binary decision.”

“There’re other factors to consider...”

“Like what?” Linus had utterly abandoned the process of unpacking bags, in favour of unpacking his sister’s love life. 

 

The question sent thoughts racing across Selena’s mind. 

Most vampires including Baldwin thought anything other than a “pure blooded” vampire are lesser creatures or inferior for one. Not to mention the de Clermonts would probably have a hard time maintaining their image and reputation, within the vampire community and the congregation, after Diana and Matthew’s mating and the birth of their hybrid twins. As the head of the de Clermont family, mating with anyone other than the “perfect” vampire would likely not be an option for Baldwin to begin with. Plus, as one of the only three members left in the Moira family, being with a vampire didn’t seem like the right option for her either - 

 

“Wait - Stop -” Linus interrupted Selena’s train of thoughts. “Maybe you’re thinking too much? No one says you have to marry the guy on the spot - I know you’re fairly new to this dating thing - But just so you know, keeping things casual is an option too. It doesn’t have to be a pros and cons list every time. Just chill...see where things lead.”

Thea had chosen the moment to walk into the room, passed the closed door as mist. She reappeared as a white ferret and nested herself in one of the opened duffle bags, peeked out only to throw a pair of balled up socks at Linus. 

Linus caught the makeshift ball with ease and threw it back at the familiar. “Come to think of it - Didn’t ferret symbolise playfulness and resourcefulness? Maybe Thea was telling you to loosen up.”

“In case you didn’t realise, there’s a war going on, an impending battle coming our way?” Selena let out an exasperated sigh as she watched the two juggled.  

“There won’t be a war forever -”

Thea squealed indignantly - as if in agreement - and flicked the socks at Selena with more force then necessary, breaking the makeshift ball apart. 

“Then I’ll hit pause for now and think about this then.”

“As if there’s a good time for you...” Linus muttered under his breath as Selena fleed the room. 


	19. The Inevitable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got back on the train....a month late >.<

It was the holidays, snow was falling like goose down as the townsfolk replaces the leftover Christmas decorations with ones for the New Year’s. But the festive mood outside the window had failed to penetrate into the house. 

The air in the room was so tense, it seemed a mere spark could have set off an uncontrollable reaction. Selena knew a fight was inevitable, she had foreseen it, planned for it, they all did. But the call that came still felt like a huge blow none the less. Matthew had been taken. 

 

The de Clermonts jumped into full on war mode. They worked together seamlessly like a well oiled machine, each member was given a set of specific tasks. Judging by their efficient, practiced, no-nonsense attitude, these were likely tasks they had done countless of times over the years, throughout numerous wars. 

In the span of a day, the stark office had transformed into something that reminded Selena of Philippe’s cluttered yet organised study back in the Roman era. Maps, blueprints, and random documents spread across the large desk, some were pinned on the walls of the office.  

 

Baldwin had spent the last few hours in the office texting on his phone, typing ferociously on his laptops. He had just returned from Venice, where he had dropped Diana off at the Congregation to negotiate a formal approval to attack Benjamin and his cohorts. A decision that baffled Linus. 

 

“We already found out exactly where they’re hiding, got the blueprints of their complex. What more do we need?”

“Maybe that’s their way.” Selena answered distractedly as she prepared the spell Baldwin requested. “We know next to nothing about their politics or laws.”  

Selena, with a notebook in hand, sat on the bedroom floor, surrounded by a circle of seemingly random items, pondering to figure out how they could fit together to form a tracking spell. Her familiar, Thea, had been helping with the spell by dropping the items onto Selena’s lap. Most, as usual, was perplexing to say the least. 

 

“We should have kept something of your attacker, some blood, a few strands of hair...” Selena thought out loud, her fingers tapped mindlessly on the notebook. “At least that could help target that lot.” 

“If you don’t need it fresh, surely there’s something left of him, might need a spade or scuba gears tho.” Linus said half-jokingly. 

“Something closer to Benjamin would be even better, that one’s his great grandson or something, but it’s the closest we’ve got.”

“Not the closest, didn’t Benjamin make that vampire from London? We could ask him?”

 

 

After days of preparation, everything was finally in place. Baldwin led a group of knights and Diana to attack Benjamin’s hiding place, while half of his children were out in the city hunting, Stasia and another group of knights were task to hunt them down along with the Moria twins. 

 

With the help of a tech savvy daemon, Selena managed to load a handful of disposable phones with a tracking spell app. For over a century, Benjamin and his blood raged children had been using a series of tunnels beneath the city to evaded capture, but not anymore. 

Red dots appeared on the map as soon as Linus opened the app. The dots moving quickly as they tracked the blood raged vampires that were moving rapidly underground and into a deserted part of the city. Hunting the unfortunate souls who wandered into their path, just like they normally did every other day at this time. But this day was different, this day the hunters would become the hunted. 

 

“A group of them are heading south, they should come out through the opening down that road.” Linus pointed towards a rusted door, ajar and half hidden behind unkempt bushes and piles of trash. 

Selena silently observed the environment. 

“Could make use of these.” She gestured. 

The twins grinned at each other, a plan had seemingly formed between a brief nod, a lift of an eyebrow and a few exchanged glances. 

 

The buildings surrounding them were abandoned and in various stages of disrepair. A ruined structure, probably once a multi-storey apartment, had large chunks of concrete chipped off its walls, exposing the ribbed steel bars underneath. A faded store sign flapped and creaked as the wind blew pass, barely hanging by a bolt. 

 

With a practiced flick of their hands, Selena and Linus picked out the unseen threads that bound the world and connected everything imaginable. Carefully they wound a few blue and purple threads around a steel bar, a yellow thread attached itself to a bolt. Half a dozen of colourful threads spread out and crisscrossed, forming an invisible web, readied for its prey to enter. 

 

Several vampires emerged from the hidden pathway, their eyes turned ominously black when they sniffed the air. Sensing the magic users, they darted straight for Selena and Linus. But even with their enhanced speed, they could not out run the spell laid beneath their feet. 

 

A strong gust of wind knocked a bolt loose, the faded store sign dropped, decapitating a snarling vampire. 

Large pieces of concrete crashed onto the ground as the metal supports softened by an unseen flame. The ground shook, debris snared another one by the foot, dropping him onto the awaiting steel bars. 

The tremble shattered the windows of the nearby building, shards of glass rained down onto their intended targets. 


End file.
